User blog:Aquamarinesandopals/Understanding Ever After
A.K.A. This school is confusing and I take great pleasure in trying to figure out how it works. I wrote a very similar thing to this on my tumblr a while ago, but I figured it'd be useful to post up here too! Whilst it is true I'm reading the books, haven taken the EAH quizzes several times and have watched all the webisodes, some of this information may be wrong and, if that is the case, you're welcome to comment and help me improve this list! Just to be clear, some of the information here is from the books. A lot of people consider the books and webisodes different canons, so I've tried to point out when this information is - information that comes from the books should have a ! next to it. If it is not marked with !, I haven't mentioned it to be from a quiz and you don't remember it being in a webisode, it's probably from a diary or profile. Note: This post is no longer being updated. A more updated version (that is being updated frequently) can be found here. School System How the hex does this school work? I'm glad you asked. This part is completely unnecessary to picking out classes for your OC, but I figured some background info on how the school actually ''works might be helpful. The Basics Ever After High is a boarding school currently (and for the foreseeable future) headmastered by the Brothers Grimm. It is one of the many schools of its kind. Most students begin attendance in first year and leave in fourth year but it's likely students can come into the year at any point. (As seen with the likes of Poppy in ''Poppy the Roybel). Students find out information like their roommate and their school counselor in first year. Students have to fill in an application over the holidays every year, giving preference for the kind of roommate they would like ( ! Next Top Villain). ''In the first two webisodes Raven comments that "I'm rooming with Maddie this year.", indicating that students can likely list an actual person they would like to share with. (We also know Raven and Cedar roomed last year in ! ''The Storybook of Legends, ''so it definitely changed between 1st and 2nd year). The Ever After High Cards say that a lot of students will have the same rooms as their parents did. (Thank you, CB9!) The latest webisodes tell us that school starts in the 9th month (September - ''The Legacy Orchard) and continue until at least the 6th month (June -'' Tri-Castle-On''). Presumably June is their last month and they July and August off for summer vacation. This is when the school traditions get a bit unusual. The only two years we know a lot about so far are 2nd and 3rd year (which, so far, have been the focus of the books and webisodes), which seem to be the busiest years for someone attending Ever After High. In a confusing turn of events, Legacy Year (the year you pledge to fulfill your destiny) is second year, rather than the more logical 1st or 4th year. (This is implyed in the webisodes and confirmed in the book !The Storybook of Legends) Even weirder, Ever After High students spend most of their 3rd year making a yearbook and then planting it to turn into a year book tree. Told you. Weird. Here in Scotland, this is something seniors would usually do but, considering it follows Legacy Year, this has to take place in their third year. One student is usually the editor and is usually the person in charge of the yearbook, but it seems like everyone lends a helping hand. Apple's diary says that the Orientation tours "always" start in the Tower - implying the students have a Book to School Orientation in both First and Second year. The Ever After High Cards say that there is an annual Book to School assembly in the in the Charmitorium. These Orientations take place a week before any classes start. A trip to The Legacy Orchard seems to replace this in their Third Year. (The Legacy Orchard) Skipping back a bit, we do get some information about first year in ! The Unfairest of Them All. Apparently first year is Freedom Year, and students are allowed to take an elective of their choice during that year. (Thank you, Patchworks!) That leaves the yearly timetable looking like this: The Yearly Timetable *''1st Year/Freshman Year: Freedom Year. This year likely focuses on making friends and learning about your fairytale/your destiny - we can assume it starts with an Orientation Tour. We also know that students get to take an elective of their choice in this year. *''2nd Year/Sophomore Year: ''Legacy Year. This year is, so far, the biggest and busiest year in canon. The year is packed with events. The students have a Book to School orientation a week before classes. Legacy Day is the first major event of the school year^, but a big BookBall game and Thronecoming follow soon after. *''3rd Year/Junior Year: ''Yearbook Year. Another big year. The year begins with a trip to The Legacy Orchard and the year is mainly focused on creating a year book to put in the orchard. The school year closes after the yearbook has been planted and the school has hosted its Tri-Castle-On. *''4th Year/Senior Year: ''Unknown. ^The fact that Legacy Day takes place near the start of the 2nd school year implies that they do a lot of preperation for it in their First Year. Classes So how does ''this work? Honestly, it doesn't. The system appears to be a mess and it's not something that's made very clear in canon. Nevertheless, this is what I've figured out. Unlike your roommate and your counselor, classes seem to change every year (! The Storybook of Legends) and seem dependent on what your destiny is. If you haven't got a destiny you get the luxury of picking your subjects. These subjects will be used to shape your destiny (Poppy the Roybel). A scroll detailing your classes for the year is delivered to your dorm at the start of the school year. (! Next Top Villain) Note: In a confusing turn of events, the Ever After High Roomie Quiz implies that everyone gets to pick their subjects, which completely contradicts with ! The Storybook of Legends. Furthermore, Apple is seen taking some of Raven's classes in Class Confusion. These are likely down to a) cross-canon inconsistencies and/or b) exceptional circumstances. :[EDIT: This is complicated even more in ! Next Top Villain as Lizzie states "Headmaster Grimm makes all the class decisions.". I personally think its likely the writers bent the rules to allow for a certain plot to happen in Class Confusion, but make of that what you will.] The Royal or Rebel quiz tells us that there are 6 classes in a day - one of them is always Grimmnastics. This leaves five classes in the day that are dedicated to subjects relevant to destiny. EDIT: ! Kiss and Spell ''reveals that Science and Sorcery is also compulsary for every student. Two of a students subjects should be Grimmnastics and Science and Sorcery, the rest should be related to their destiny. :EDIT: The Ever After High Cards reveal even ''more contradictions with the classes. We know that the series starts in Apple and Raven's second year. The cards reveal that Hexonomics, Chemythstry and Geografairy are compulsary for all students. Whether this is meant to be applied to just second years or all years is up in the air, but this actively goes against material that can be found in the books and webisodes. If this we took this information into consideration with the information from the books and webisodes, then each student would only have one subject relevant to their fairy tale destiny and that simply isn't true, if we take into account all the other information we know. I would explain this by saying that Mattel forgot their own rules and so things have become confused. From the way the results are laid out on the quiz, it seems likely to me that a class schedule would look like this, with each class lasting for an hour or so: Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Break | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Lunch | Lesson 5 | Lesson 6 In order to pass classes, students need to get a certain amount of credit - in ! Kiss and Spell, ''Hopper is said to of recently joined the Tech Club in order to get said extra credit. Credit seems to be given out as teachers please - Faybelle gains extra credit in ! ''Next Top Villain ''for simply performing a cheer. It's also likely that the students have 5 days a week for learning and the other 2 off school. ! ''Kiss and Spell ''makes it sound like Saturday's are usually reserved for studying and it's noted later in the same book that "Sunday was the perfect day to record the MirrorCast since none of the students had classes.". List of Classes Here we are! What you likely came here for. This is a list of ''canon ''classes in alphabetical order. *Advanced Allusions and Cross-Cultural Reference ! *Advanced Ballet ! (This is taught off-campus in the Red Shoes Studio) *Advanced Villainy ! (In ! ''Next Top Villain Duchess says that she'll move up to this subject if she does well in General Villainy, implying Advanced subjects are extensions of "general" versions of their classes.) *Advanced Wooing (I'd headcanon this as an extension of Wooing 101) *Anger Magicment ! *Arts and Crafts *Beast Training and Care *Castle Design ! (Though it's from the books it can be seen on the endcard for some of the webisodes) *Chemythstry *Cooking Class-ic *Creative Storytelling *Crownculus *Damsel-In-Distressing *Dance Class-ic *Debate *Dragon Slaying *Drama ! (Lizzie imples they put on a show each year, in ! Next Top Villain) *Environmental Magic *Experimental Fairy Magic ! *Geografairy *General Villainy *Grimmnastics (Canonly includes Swamp Swimming [Lizzie Heart's Fairytale First Date] and Swimclass, though I'd also assume they do Applebatics and Track and Shield in Grimmnastics, which are both mentioned to be clubs in ! Kiss and Spell. ''This is a compulsory subject, according to the ''Royal or Rebel Quiz. *Heroics 101 ! *Hero Training (! A Semi-Charming Kind of Life shows Dexter, Hunter and Daring others learning how to joust in Hero Training. This could just of been for the Parents Weekend that was coming up.) *Hexonomics ('Hex' implies bad magic, so this seems like it'd be the 'evil' version of Magicology) *History of Evil Spells ! *The History of Tall Tales *Home Economoyths ! (This is taught by Prof. Momma Bear in ! Next Top Villain) *Home Evilnomics *Kingdom Management *Kingdom Mis-Management ! *Magicology *Muse-ic Class (In ! Kiss and Spell, Melody can be seen doing Muse-ic Theory homework. I suspect this something they study in Muse-ic Class, rather than being it's own subject.) *Mythology *Poison Fruit Theory ! *Princess Design *Princessology (Apple says in ! Kiss and Spell that they "learn every royal story in Princessology class." Raven later comments that "True Loves Kiss is most powerful. We just learned that in Princessology.") *Riddling ! *Science and Sorcery (Compulsory, according to Ginger in ! Kiss and Spell) *Spells, Hexes and Evil Witchery *Storytelling 101 *Throne Economics *Witchness Management *Woodshop *Wooing 101 Extra Curricular Activities Once again, this is only a list of canon clubs. *Applebatics Team ! *Art Appreciation Club *Ancient History Club ! *Book Club *Bookball Team *Charming Charity Club *Cheerhexing Squad *Chess Club *Dance Class (Though it has class in the name this is explicitly said to be a club in one of the quizzes) *The Enchanted Forest Club *The Environmental Magic Club ! *Glee Club (Happi-glee Ever Afters, according to Cedar) *The Honest Opinions Club ! *MirrorNet Broadcast Club *Muse-ic Lessons (Separate from Muse-ic Class, likely a one on one lesson between a student learning an instrument and a teacher.) *Royal Student Council *Swim Team ! *Tech Club ! *Thronecoming Planning Committee *Track and Shield Team ! *Villain Club ! Notes *Royal Student Council is listed as a club because, despite Briar listing it as her favourite subject, I have never been nor heard of any school that treats student council like a legitimate subject that takes up one of your class slots. It's likely it takes place at lunch, break or after school and is just Briar's favourite part of the day. (Kinda like when people say lunch was their favourite school subject). Trivia *There is no uniform, but students are provided winter outfits by the school. *Though not officially school grounds, students are free to go in and out of the village of Book End. *"How does the school get all this funding?!" It's likely a private school that you have to pay to attend. According to Grimm in ! A Semi-Charming Kind of Life, a lot of richer families will donate money to help keep the school running - the Charmings are the biggest donator. *Being a boarding school, every student shares a dorm with one other student of the same gender. Darling notes in ! A Semi-Charming Kind of Life ''that students who are royalty tend to stay on the upper floors of the dorm building. **Ginger also says in ! ''Kiss and Spell that each student has a family crest on their door, so you know who it belongs to. This conflicts with the webisodes, that show the doors being brown with golden detailing (Ginger in the BreadHOUSE, Date Night, Duchess Swan's Lake). This is likely just a detail that was added in later to the books. **The floors of these dorms are apparenty made from stone (! Next Top Villain), though this doesn't seem to be the case in the webisodes. *! Next Top Villain ''tells us that the school has Common Rooms for the pupils, though we've never seen them in the webisodes. *The school has a curfew and most of the amenities close in the evenings - the Common Rooms don't. **The curfew is midnight to 6am, according to Duchess in ! ''Next Top Villain *The school provides books for the pupils. (! Next Top Villain) *Mr. Gingerbreadman apparently burns when pupils are late for his class (Grimmnastics). Horrifying. *According to the Cards, there are three study lounges in the school - one is used by the rebels, one is used by the royals and one is used by those from Wonderland. Despite one room being made for the royals, rebels are free to use it - Briar's Study Party shows a mix of royals and rebels all using the same lounge. These rooms stay open past curfew. **If ! Kiss and Spell is anything to go by then these lounges are particularly popular on Saturday, when a large portion of the student body does their homework for the week. Category:Blog posts Category:Aquamarinesandopals